We Goofed: Vera & Vera

While we've only heard from one reader who spotted our Vera Maxwell mistake in Alligators... we can't believe we made such a dumb mistake and we want to correct it. We confused two designers, both named Vera, and the woman we wanted to identify in our book is Vera Neumann (see page 182 in the hardback edition). Vera Maxwell was also a design legend, with a career spanning fifty years, but it is Neumann whose screen prints appeared on everything from dresses to napkins and tablecloths.

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What Is Alligators...?

Alligators, Old Mink & New Money, One Woman's Adventures in Vintage Clothing was written by sisters Alison and Melissa Houtte and is available in the U.S. and Canada in both hardback (top; William Morrow/Harper Collins) and paperback (Avon Trade).
You can also buy the UK edition (Orion Publishing) in hardback in England, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Orion's paperback edition (below) is also now on sale.

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Clothes Quotes

A batch of vintage classics, with thanks to Hester Hull of Birmingham, Michigan:

“Nothing is thought rare which is not new, and follow’d; yet we know that what was worn some 20 years ago comes into grace again.”—Francis Beumont

"The purse is the mirror of the soul.”—Anna Quindlen, 1987

“When in doubt, wear red.”—Bill Blass, 1982

“These gems have life in them: their colors speak, say what words fail of.”—George Eliot

“And she always took the clothes created for her one step further by adding something of her own, some small personal detail which enhanced the whole.”—Givenchy on Audrey Hepburn

“Large handbags to carry all the family’s ration books were also practical rather than fashionable accessories.”—Carol Harris in Women Under Fire in World War II

“Skirts couldn’t get any shorter and remain legal.”—Amy Greene, 1970

If you adore her, you must adorn her. There lies the secret of a happy marriage.”—Anne Fogarty, 1959

Just make sure no one has exactly the same dress I do. I want all mine to be original and no fat little women hopping around in the same dress.”—Jacqueline Kennedy

“When a man says he likes a woman in a skirt, I tell him to try one.”—Katharine Hepburn

"A woman’s dress should be like a barbed wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”—Sophia Loren

“Each day Beryl would appear in the yard, looking as if she had stepped off the pages of Vogue. Silk shirt, perfectly cut jodhpurs, shining leather boots, little kid leather gloves. A broadbrimmed hat and leather whip tucked under her arm completed the ensemble. It was first class all the way with Beryl. That was all she knew. ‘ Tell them to bring the horses around, will you sweetie?’ she would say when she was ready.”—Mary S. Lovell in the biography of Beryl Markham (first woman to fly the Atlantic east to west), Straight on’ Til Morning

“Just to flirt again---in a skirt again/ There’s no romance when you dance/ Cheek to cheek and pants to pants /Oh for an old fashioned dress!”—Irving Berlin.